The Twin Ships of the Peary Expedition, 1901, Nuerke, Greenland
The story of Peary's attempts to discover the North Pole is a tale of Heroism. For twenty years he struggled before he finally succeeded. He made his first trip to Greenland in 1886 when he was a young naval engineer. Until the Pole was discovered, he made 9 voyages into the Arctic regions. On July 4, 1898, Peary sailed from St. John's, Newfoundland, in a ship called the Windward, one of the vessels here seen. He wintered within 20° of the North Pole. In the summer he rounded the end of the group of islands north of Greenland. The winter of 1901 the party spent in Grinnell Land. On the 16th of May he came within 16° of the pole. Then the party had to turn back. In July, 1908, Peary left New York on his eighth voyage. He began his struggle to find the North Pole, a young man. He was no longer young, and he determined that this trip should be a successful one. The ship that carried him and his party was named Roosevelt. After landing in the far North, Peary started on a sledge trip on the 15th of February, 1909. There were 7 members of his party besides 17 Eskimos, 133 dogs, and 19 sledges. The open water held them up for a few days. Then apart of the party turned back and Peary and 5 Eskimos made a dash for the Pole. They had supplies for 40 days and the pick of the dogs. On the 4th of April they were within one degree of the Pole. On the 6th of April, Peary and his Eskimos were at the Pole itself. Here they stayed for 30 hours, raised the United States flag, and took some photographs. Keystone ID: 13325 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.